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YHA Lisbon Centre Reviews

YHA Lisbon Centre, known domestically as "Pousadas de Jouventede" is located "near" the heart of the Old Town. I use the word "near" in double quotes because the website descriptions will have you believe that it's a walk away from the historic/Old town but it's at least 2-3 stops away by the Metro.

Now about the Metro: a few websites mention the nearest Tube Stop as Marque de Pombal but Picoas is way closer, infact it's literally at the end of the road. I used to walk nearly half a mile (or more?) every day to the Marques stop and realised my mistake a little too late!

The hostel itself: checkin is easy, and at that time itself you're given coupons for breakfast (yes, free!). The hostel is clean, but given its rather small sq. footage per floor, it kind of felt very disjointed and "unready" at times.

The rooms are clean and are mostly made of bunker beds (as in the case of hostels). I liked that the safes provided are actually huge and can fit a suitcase as well. However, there were 2 things about the rooms that I didn't like:

1) Lack of power outlets all over. There were just 2, in a room for 6 people!

2) You need a keycard to turn on the power supply in the room (you need to put it in a slot by the room entrance). This means that 1 roommate will have his card in the slot and if he leaves (even to go to the toilet) and takes the card with him, the room loses power unless someone else realises and puts their card in.

As mentioned, breakfast is free. When I received the vouchers, I thought "oh wow, how nice". When I had my first breakfast, I thought "geez, no wonder!". It's very basic - awful cheese, hard bread and rationed packets of jam. To a point where they're over you like a hawk as you pick your plate from the display case. The coffee is very bitter. Perhaps that's how Portuguese drink it (and love it) but keeping in mind that this hostel gets an international population, it would've been nice if they served more globalised coffee/ tea (or at least had more options).

The staff are very friendly, they know the town very well and are chatty yet professional. No issues there. Wireless is non existent on the bedroom floors but perfectly fine on the ground floor/reception area. The toilets and bathroom are clean, but smell very musty.

Overall, I would recommend this hostel for the location, but I'm told that for the average tourist who's not that much into economising his trip, there are better options closer to the Old Town.